User Experience design and testing to launch Bayer ForGround

A platform developed to help farmers adopt sustainable growing practices and reduce supply chain emissions
The Problem
Agriculture accounts for nearly one-quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions according to the United Nations. However, small changes in growing practices can make a big impact.
The Solution
As an agricultural inputs company, Bayer's mission was to spearhead emission reduction by helping farmers get paid to track and manage changes to their growing practices, via partnerships with grain buyers.
The Challenge
Developing a platform to encourage farmers to participate in data-input intensive programs that require tracking and recording of detailed data on field practices. Bayer hired Combyne to design and develop the platform to speed up delivery.
Team
  • UI Designer
  • 3 Developers
  • Lead Engineer
  • External Stakeholders
My Role
  • UX Design
  • Usability Testing
  • Led UI Design
  • Product Management
Timeline
  • Overall: 6 months
  • Scoping: 2 weeks
  • Design & Testing: 6 weeks
  • Development: 12 weeks
  • Hand-Off: 4 weeks
Tools
  • Brainstorming: Miro
  • Design: Figma
  • Testing: Google Meets
  • PM: Craft.io, Jira

concept to launch in 6 months

I led design and execution of this 6-month project, from initial scoping to experience design, testing, and development.

Jan - May 2022

Establishing the Opportunity

Bayer explores new business opportunities with agricultural supply chains. They secure partnerships with grain buying companies to help reduce farmer carbon emissions by paying them to implement changes to their growing practices in the field.
June 2022

Project Definition & Scoping

Combyne team is brought in to help with the design and execution of the platform. I took on the role of Product Manager to help the team define and scope essential needs for the platform launch.
Jun - Jul 2022

UX Design & Usability Testing

I led the experience design of the platform, establishing userflows, information architecture, and detailed wireframes for all key functionality. Usability testing was conducted with 4 growers.
Jul - Oct 2022

UI Design & Development

After usability testing outcomes were implemented, the team created a design library and applied final UI. Development was completed across 8 sprints and the product was handed off to the Bayer team for launch.
February 2023

Platform Launch

Bayer launches the first version of the platform with Perdue and other notable companies, using what the Combyne team developed to establish a strong foundation and expand their offerings.

Project Definition & Scoping

I worked with stakeholders at Bayer to define the product scope and goals, setting it up for planned future expansion.

Must Haves

Create a ForGround account
Enrol in a sustainability program
Choose fields to enrol
Verify grain deliveries for program
Verify growing practices for fields
Track program progress and impact

Nice to Haves

Optical Character Recognition for document uploads
Integrations with ERPs for grain delivery verification
Capture historical practices for enrolled fields

Future Needs

Track progress of incentive payments
Manage in multiple programs at once
Mobile version of the platform

UX Design: Userflows

I crafted userflows for the core actions farmers would need to take to participate in a program, collaborating with Bayer to establish ideal workflows and future-proof the architecture.

Flow 1.1
Allow a farmer to create a ForGround account

Flow 1.2
Allow a farmer to enrol in a sustainability program

Flow 2.1
Allow a farmer to upload load tickets to verify grain deliveries for a program

Flow 2.2
Allow a farmer to review digitized load tickets from OCR uploads

Flow 2.3
Allow a farmer to review proof of practice status for enrolled fields

Flow 2.4
Allow a farmer to review carbon impact and complete the program

UX Design: Wireframes

Then, I began wireframing. Signing up for a ForGround account was the first step, giving Bayer a way to track farmers and provide recommendations for other programs in the future.

After signing up, the farmer could enrol in a sustainability program, shared via a unique link from their grain buyer

Once program enrolment was complete, I created wireframes for a portal to enable farmers to track and manage their programs

Usability testing

I ran usability testing sessions alongside our user researcher. We tested the workflows with 4 farmers in virtual sessions, giving them scenarios to complete. These were the findings. 

1
Load Tickets Page  > > > Added the ability to bulk assign verified loads to fields due to many deliveries being made in a single day
2
Reports Page Submission > > > Added a checklist to prevent submission before all program requirements were complete
3
Reports Page Stats > > > Added info icon on carbon stats and incentives to create transparency on calculations (improve trust) 

Final Design & UI

Following successful testing, I led UI design, leveraging ForGround's established brand and Material Design as a foundation to create a scalable design library for more efficient development. 

Wireframes went into development while the design library was built. This sped up development time significantly, making it easy to apply UI as designs were finished.

Challenge

Include elements of the partner brand, while remaining scaleable for expansion with future programs.

Solution

Opting against co-branding each program, we implemented a placeholder navigation bar that could showcase partner logos and colours.

SIGN UP

Farmers were invited to participate in sustainability programs via a unique link given to them through the buyers that purchased their grain. To enrol, they sign up for a ForGround account, connect to FieldView, and enrol eligible fields.

Home

Once signed in to their ForGround account, a farmer can see the status of programs they’re enrolled in. I designed a quick overview for them to see their progress at a glance.

Managing a Program

1
View key program milestones & take actions
2
Field by field progress & incentive calculations
3
Add or remove enrolled fields
4
Frequently asked questions about programs
5
Resources to help with practice changes

Load tickets

In order to receive incentives, farmers had to verify their grain was delivered to the participating facility. To make this easy we added OCR capabilities for bulk document uploads to automate data entry.  

Tracking Load Deliveries

1
Upload load tickets via OCR (optical character recognition)
2
Status of uploads & review processed files
3
Assign verified deliveries to their field(s) of origin
4
Filter loads by date, commodity, location

proof of practice

Farmers had to submit documentation as proof of the practices they implemented on enrolled fields. I created an easy checklist format where they could answer multiple choice questions for each practice. 

Managing Proof of Practice

1
Display each enrolled field and relevant practices
2
List of practices required for program incentives
3
Ability to upload documentation & view status
4
Field success state when all proof is submitted

reports

I designed a Reports page where farmers could see their impact, track incentive payments, and close out the program. The impact stats we added to encourage repeat enrolment and sustained practice changes, highlighting environmental and financial impact for the individual.

Viewing Impact

1
Detailed stats of carbon reduction per acre/field/bu
2
Last updated date to show relevance
3
Summary of program participation statistics 
4
Detailed program statistics per field
5
Detailed program statistics per load

Results

The portal was launched in 2023, enabling farmers to go beyond enrolment to participate in and track their impact for various programs.

Combyne's Acquisition

The Combyne team successfully transitioned the developed product to Bayer, providing a strong foundation for them to build upon and expand their program offerings for farmers. This successful collaboration established the foundation for Bayer CropScience's acquisition of Combyne Ag.

Project Results

  • Launched 3x sooner than internal capabilities could achieve
  • Able to use the platform to get the first programs launched with companies like Perdue
  • Used to collect metrics for baseline measurements on traditional practices

Future Goals

  • Expand to enable farmers to enrol in and manage multiple programs at once as the volume of partners increases
  • Generate visibility on the additional benefits of sustainable practice changes outside of incentives, ie. cost savings on inputs or increases in yield

Want to work together?

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